The problem with hubots (humans acting as spambots), is that they're always changing IP addresses and email addresses - so it's very difficult to make a preemptive ban on them.

Without having sendmail working, you can't have email confirmation and admin authorization. You might try adding Derek Barnstorm's anti-spam Question with niche specific questions. Also the x-post before links mod.

If you only have one solution to a problem you're not trying hard enough!

next The Guardian™goto The Guardian™ Proxy Blocking here check Deny access through proxy servers? and thatDo you want an email notification on any detected attempts?, Auto add abusing IP addresses to .htaccess? are unchecked

now Harvester Blockinghere check Activate harvester blocking? and that Do you want an email notification on any detected attempts?, Auto add abusing IP addresses to .htaccess? are unchecked

now open Harvester_Blocking_List.txt and copy all items you do not have in your list for forums that have not made any edits herejust select all and copy now in the Harvester Blocking window on the forum select all and paste

YaBB install help video1. what yabb forum are you running and the url2. describe in as much detail as you can what happens and also post screenshots if you can3. please be patient we live in different time zones and have other commitments but we will help youas bill and ted say (Be excellent to each other)

... I hope these changes won't block legitimate members of registering.

I miss the days of having no restrictions in our forum when we allowed guest posting without requiring a membership. In large part, spammers ruined that freedom.

Our forum is truly worldwide, so participation pretty much comes from every part of the world. So particularly with us, there are times when people who want to register are unable to do so because of what amounts to our necessary, but nonetheless discriminatory anti-spam measures.

What's helped in our forum has been to include at the top of our required "User Agreement" the following message (obviously edited):

Note: If you have any problems registering in our forum, please contact Miss Emilyat MyEmail@MyDomain.com so that your registration can be activated. Thank you.

I actually highlighted the message above to make it stand out in our forum.

Ironically, with one of the two instances where our own forum's special message similar to the one above shows up in Google's search engine, an error message is presented because of our security settings. But that's actually okay since menu options in our forum also show up. No biggie.

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On a related note regarding anyone with a "sendmail" problem, even though I noticed this was implemented because of spammers, I've seen admins replace the standard "Register" tab with one of their own that explains in succinct detail how to register.

In other words, such a forum's "Register" tab links to a post in that forum explaining it all.

Pretty ingenious if you ask me. If there's a will, there's a way.

« Last Edit: Nov 14th, 2012 at 7:34pm by Bill Myers »

Morning, noon, or night, have a great one!

Note: Like most others, this forum doesn't allow us to freely edit our posts or topics to make corrections as needed, so please remember to look for subsequent posts if you see any mistakes or outdated information. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Bill Myers ... I already have a similar message in the User Agreement area, but thank you for the advice.

Yes it's impossible with guest posting these days. Sometimes I visit other forums and I want to have an input but I couldn't be bothered going through the registration process so I end up leaving. Web surfers visiting my forum may be doing the same thing.

xnoddyx ... The new security settings doesn't appear to be working, still spam registrations. Maybe I'll try to increase the number of CAPTCHA and see if that helps.

Proxy Blocking ok why i say turn this on is that most of the hubots i have seen come from anonymous proxies you can have a look herehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server and decide if you do want this on or even test it for a couple of days just to see

Scripting Blocking this will not affect legitimate members.

YaBB install help video1. what yabb forum are you running and the url2. describe in as much detail as you can what happens and also post screenshots if you can3. please be patient we live in different time zones and have other commitments but we will help youas bill and ted say (Be excellent to each other)

you will still get spam signups as this will only help to curve some of them what you will see is in your error log as well as "You failed the fruit check!" you will also now see "Proxy Access to this forum is denied!"

YaBB install help video1. what yabb forum are you running and the url2. describe in as much detail as you can what happens and also post screenshots if you can3. please be patient we live in different time zones and have other commitments but we will help youas bill and ted say (Be excellent to each other)